The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-28

aggerated by the uninfOrmed, these evils
have been discussed, and the arguments
against that institution poured into the pup
lie ear, through books, in magazines, from
platforms and pulpits until the truth has
been obscured, the very elect deceived, and
the faith of our children in the justice and
humanity of their fathers seriously threat
ened. hold i'll my hand now a magazine
article, full OF the grossest injustice to the
past Of the Southern States. For over fifty
years the record of these evils, and
| these adverse arguments have been con
spicuously placed upon one side of the
balance sheet. 1t is a remarkable fact that
the benefcent results from that institution
have rarely, if ever, been fully and fairly
presented upon the other. With every page
Of American history brimful of these beneh-
cent results, we have been too tardy III
emphasizing them to our children and to
| those who have ignorantly assailed us. or
course, in the brief remarks l shall be
| able to make this morning, / can only pre-
sent few of those beneficial results, and
with the hope that sach imperfect preSenta-
ton may induce others to undertake the
patriotic task.
In the first place, it will be admitted
! perhaps-but whether admitted or not it is
true-that no age nor country has ever pro-
duced a civilization of nobler type than
that which was born in the Southern plan
tatiOn home, and which drew its nutriment
and inspiration from the rural life of the
Southern people. 1t was a civilization
where personal courage, personal independ-
ence, personal dignity, personal honor and
the manifest virtues We're nurtured; where
feminine refinement, feminine purity,
feminine culture, delicacy and gen
tlencss expressed themselves in models of
rarcst loneliness and perfection, and where,
in the language of great Georgian, ''hospl-
tality was as free and boundless as the Vi
talizing air around us"
We cannout without self-stulification
and abasement forget the men who fell in
our defense in the late sectional conflict
To fail to cherish their memories in our
heart of hearts to the latest generation
would be to trample self-respect, manhood
and honor under our feet.
Nor can we lose one of those peculiar
characteristics of our former civilization
without lowering the high order of Southern
| character and manhood. The great problem
of our future is not how to secure material
| prosperity. That seems already assured;
but no amount of such successes, however
general and brilliant, could compensate
| for the loss of our hitherto high standard
of private and public integrity. Nor is our
| political status, however vital to our future,
! the question to us of deepest significance.
| No. but the great problem is how to hold to the
| characteristics OF our old civilization, when
that civilization itself is gone; how to send
the current which so enriched and purified
| the DID, cOurSing forever through the new
life before us; how to relight the old fires
upon the new affairs. The more we shall be
| enabled to incorporate into the SOuths new
| life the chief characteristics developed by
| the DID, the better, the higher and the purer
will that new life become
But patriotism itself demands that we
shall cherish these associations with our
past, and the reason of this demand is, that
a self-respecting patriot is Drawer truer,
| grander man than one who has lost his self
respect. If the education of the youth of the
country, North and South, were guided by
| some such patriotic purpose, it would be
well for the future of this republic
1t was my melancholy pleasure to take
part in the funeral honors paid to the
| North's greatest hero, Gen. Z. s. Grant
| Every soldier and citizen who took part in
that greatest pageant of modern times;
every child who, with loving hands, placed
flowers upon his bier, and every stone that
| shall hereafter be placed in the monument
| to his memory will but add to Northern
manhood and Northern character. So, on
the other hand, the almost equally great
demonstration in the South one year ago,
| over the living President of the dead Con-
federacy, was potential in the formation of
| Southern character. Every bonfire that
blaZed on the streets of Montgomery, every
cannon shot that shook its mills, every rocket
that flew on fiery wing through the mid
night air, every tear-drOp that stole down
the cheeks of patriotic Southern women,
was a contribution to the relf-respect, the
character and the manhood of Southern
| youth.
| If, therefore, an injunction could be laid
upon this people which could not be disre-
garded, that injunction should be to cult
vate the self-respect by stimulating the
pride of Southern youth, in the past Of this
people Let the proverbial respect for woman
never grow less i'll this section, but let her
purity and exalted character'command now
and always your chivalrous courtesy and
manly Difference. Let personal probity, in
tellectual ability and unselfsh devotion to
the public veal be the sole passports to
your confidence and the price of your
support to public office Finally, let the
| great body of our citizens, private and Off
cial, let your teachers and your preachers,
and above all your public press, unite to
create and support public opinion which
shall be enlightened and memorable, and
whose resistlesS fiat shall forever bar the
doors Of this section against all commercial
methods in politics, and shall make impos-
sible among this people the triumph of mere
wealth over personal, intellectual and moral
| worth